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Happy Home Surprises
For College-Hoops Fans

Fans in three college-basketball arenas last night watched their home teams win stunners: two upsets of ranked teams, and one wholly unexpected 49-point blowout.

The biggest shock happened in Tallahassee, where 9-8 Florida State upset No. 3 Wake Forest, 91-83, in overtime. The Demon Deacons were coming off a 14-point win over North Carolina on Saturday, and extended their NCAA record streak of made free throws to 50 last night. No. 51 would have won the game in regulation, but Taron Downey missed -- the biggest stunner of all. After it was official, FSU fans stormed the court so quickly that TV replays looked like they were set to fast-forward.

Tampa Tribune columnist Martin Fennelly isn't getting carried away; he points out that the Seminoles have a history of big upsets leavened by lots of bad losses. "FSU basketball. It might vanish against Duke," Mr. Fennelly writes. "These Seminoles come and go. It didn't matter Tuesday. Todd Galloway heaved the ball toward the gym ceiling. It eventually came down, as these things always do. Still, what a refreshing trajectory."

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In New York, St. John's fans rushed the court after the Red Storm upset No. 18 Pittsburgh, 65-62. Pitt is no Wake, having lost three of its last five games. But this may have been a bigger upset than FSU's -- St. John's won all of six games last year and is still reeling from a scandal borne of players' bad behavior after a road loss to Pitt last season. Now, under new coach Norm Roberts, the Red Storm are 7-7 and a team to be feared. "From that corridor of darkness, Roberts has cajoled an undermanned team back to respectability," Mike Vaccaro writes in the New York Post. "The Red Storm have no postseason hopes, courtesy of the Jarvis Administration's mangling of basic NCAA ethics. No matter. They play hard anyway. They play hard for this coach, the perfect coach at the perfect time for St. John's."

In Tuscaloosa there could be no real upset, since Alabama and Mississippi State were two ranked teams who looked evenly matched. And then, at tip-off, someone replaced the visiting Bulldogs with a Div. III team. The Crimson Tide rolled to a 98-49 win, dealing Mississippi State its worst defeat in 50 years. As impressive as Alabama's offense was -- nailing 12 three-pointers, 57% of field goals and turning the ball over only eight times -- it was defense that made the victory so lopsided, writes Mark McCarter in the Huntsville Times. "They passed out those Russian nesting dolls to fans at the gate, with likenesses of Kennedy Winston. You know the ones, where you open it up and there's another doll inside. Then another. Then another. That was Alabama's defense. Get past one man, there's another one there. And another. And another."

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If another big upset is on tap tonight, it could be in Miami, where the Hurricanes host undefeated Duke. Miami football disappointed in its debut ACC season; conversely, Miami basketball has been surprisingly strong, at 12-3 and 3-1 in the conference. The biggest reason: guard Guillermo Diaz, the conference's leading scorer -- profiled by Michelle Kaufman in the Miami Herald.

Credit must also go to new coach Frank Haith, a previously unknown Texas assistant with a deft touch. ESPN.com's Andy Katz spotlights Mr. Haith and five other first-year coaches who are exceeding expectations.

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A sadder college-basketball story: Georgia is 6-8, 0-4 in the SEC and terrible in the post-Jim Harrick era. So in honor of Mr. Harrick's infamous Basketball 101 quiz (see this Fix for a refresher), Lexington Herald Leader columnist John Clay offered a quiz about this tough Bulldog season.

Q: How many scholarship players does Georgia Coach Dennis Felton have available?

A) 13; B) 10; C) 6.

Even the correct answer (C) is misleading. Talk about your series of unfortunate events. Just last week the depleted Bulldogs lost their best walk-on, forward Anthony Evans, to a season-ending knee injury, those being the worst kind of knee injuries.

As it is, Felton starts three freshmen and two sophomores. At one point in the first half yesterday, Felton's five on the floor included four walk-ons and freshman guard Channing Toney, who must have been wondering what he had done to deserve such a fate.

One of the walk-ons, 7-foot sophomore Joey Waldrop, is affectionately known as Shrek.

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In a season of unprecedented parity in women's college basketball, neither Tennessee nor UConn -- last year's finalists and long the nation's top two programs -- are in the Top 5. But suddenly, after an 8-4 start, UConn is rolling again. The reason: freshman Charde Houston. The Hartford Courant's Jeff Jacobs describes one awesome play in Monday's rout of No. 15 Texas, admired by a former UConn legend: "Three, two ... just like that, Charde flashed all the way to the hoop -- 19 feet -- for a layup. Diana Taurasi, who was at the game, dropped down to press row at the next time out and raved, 'Can you believe that?' Everybody's jaw dropped. Everybody's except Charde's."

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The New York Knicks are collapsing, losing seven of eight games and falling into a three-way tie for first place in the NBA's woeful Atlantic Division. And that spells the end of the Lenny Wilkens era at Madison Square Garden. "Sooner than later, Wilkens promises to be gone," Adrian Wojnarowski writes in the Record. But once general manager Isiah Thomas fires his coach, how will he find an able replacement willing to cope with a meddler from on high?

"Beyond his own ego, Thomas could make a case for imposing his will in so many ways on the basketball team, but this needs to end with the inevitable firing of Wilkens," Mr. Wojnarowski writes. "There are few attractive possibilities on the midseason candidate market, but the next Knicks' coach needs to hear that he'll have the autonomy that Wilkens never did."

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Bill Simmons was alone when he watched the New England Patriots beat the Indianapolis Colts last weekend. Why? Because he couldn't take all the disrespect that the defending NFL champions were getting. (Carl won't be sending along his forecast of a Colts win.) In a postgame ESPN.com column, Mr. Simmons delivers a passionate tribute to a Pats team that has won two titles in three years and looks likely to win again this year after demolishing the Colts.

From looking back to looking forward: Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon looks at the NFC championship game matchup through the two quarterbacks, Atlanta's Michael Vick and Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb. With intelligence and depth -- belied by the Post's head-scratching online tease "McNabb and Vick are both black but play quarterback position differently" -- Mr. Wilbon explains why it's no longer a big deal for two black QBs to reach a conference championship game, yet why stereotypes still linger enough to compel Mr. McNabb to become more of a pocket passer.

Looking way ahead, for two teams no longer in it (the Colts and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), John Romano suggests a coach swap, complete with reality-TV crew. "Just ponder this for a series pilot: We get Jon Gruden and Tony Dungy to switch teams," Mr. Romano writes in the St. Petersburg Times. "Hilarity, as they say, ensues." But this isn't just a gimmick: Mr. Romano makes a case that this move would help both teams -- the Bucs could use the stolidity of their former coach, while the Colts need Mr. Gruden's spark.

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Nothing personal against Barry Bonds, but all-time home-run king Hank Aaron doesn't intend to watch his record broken in 2005, or 2006, or whenever it might happen. His memories are too painful, writes Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke, who was granted a rare interview. "Baseball needs him? How about the time he needed baseball? Where was baseball three decades ago when he was running this same race, only with twice the curves, chasing Babe Ruth while dodging hate mail and death threats and ignorance? The aging hero cannot outlive the scars, and he has no interest in reexamining them. The circus must go on without him."

Found a good column from the world of sports? Don't keep it to yourself -- write to us at dailyfix@wsj.com and we'll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix.

About the Authors

Carl Bialik and Jason Fry write The Daily Fix every weekday morning for the Online Journal. The Daily Fix offers links to the best of the day's sports columns from around the Web -- whether it's the latest trade talk in major-league baseball or the newest furor about an athlete's life off the field.

Carl, a freelance writer in New York, was a technology reporter for the Online Journal from 2003 through early 2005. He contributed to SI.com back when it was called CNNSI.com. Jason is an editor at the Online Journal. He also co-writes Real Time, which appears Mondays.

Carl is a fan of the Mets (and the A's, when the Mets aren't in it), the New York Giants, the Knicks, the New York Rangers, Yale and Syracuse. Jace's teams are the Mets and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He's also willing to give the Brooklyn Nets a shot.

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